It's time to talk about pauper cube and the cards Crimson Vow has provided for it!
In this post I will be writing about all the cards people may be considering for a pauper cube environment, mostly in the context of my own Pauper Twobert! In my verdicts for my pauper posts, I've decided to be a little less focused on whether or not the cards will specifically make it into my own cube and more on whether I think they are worth testing in most environments. As more and more quality commons come out, I have realized at a cube size of 240 I simply can't include every card worthy of a slot and I still want to promote those cards as high as they deserve.
Drogskol Infantry // Drogskol Armaments
The Good: A bear that draws a card on death is just good rate we don't often see. Mother Bear has played very well for me even with the card it draws you being static and slightly under rate. The card is just good value.
The Bad: The card it draws is considerably worse than what you get from Mother Bear. While the +2/+2 will likely be significant enough to push through damage where you otherwise couldn't, as with all auras you open yourself up to a punishing removal spell.
The Verdict: This card is certainly worth testing and could possibly even be very good. Disturb is basically Flashback/Aftermath for permanents and those tend to matter more in a pauper environment. I think I'll test this card over Seeker of the Way in my Pauper Twobert.
Fierce Retribution
The Good: Generally a modal Swift Response, a card that still sees play. Doom Blade rate is pretty good for pauper and while the Cleave cost is pretty steep, it's just nice to have the option.
The Bad: While the conditional isn't nothing, you generally want to take out the creature that would be attacking your life total anyway and most creatures at common don't have attack triggers. The only real downside this has over Swift Response is that you can't hit mana dorks.
The Verdict: If you run Swift Response I think this would be good to run alongside it or instead if you don't want 2 of this effect. I don't know which side of that "or" I'm going to be on but I will be testing this.
Piercing Light
The Good: So Play with Fire was an uncommon good enough to consider in unrestricted cubes, however I was put off by the fact the scry happened when it was a burn spell rather than a removal spell. Well here we are, burn is no longer an option but we have a 1-mana removal spell that scrys 1 and it's at common! I know we're spoiled by the likes of Lightning Bolt but Shock is premium removal, especially if your curve runs low. The little removal spell hits a whopping 64% of the creatures I run and combat can increase that percentage even more.
The Bad: Like with Fierce Retribution, the conditional isn't nothing. You're likely not hitting a mana dork with this but considering this is in white and not red I'm going to count my blessings.
The Verdict: I will be running this and I think it's going to be a slam dunk. 1-mana removal is always going to run hot and this one hits a lot of creatures.
Cruel Witness
The Good: A 3/3 Flying for 4 is not a bad rate at common and tacking on a surveil for each of your noncreature spells is pretty good upside. I imagine this would play very well in control or some other spells matter shell.
The Bad: 4 mana is high enough in the curve where this may be a little vanilla, but I don't know, the stats and flying are pretty solid.
The Verdict: It's not as proactive as some other 4-drops in blue but I can definitely see this card finding a home in pauper cubes. If you run any sort of spells matter deck I would definitely give this one a shot. For my Pauper Twobert it runs a little high in mana cost for not providing immediate value.
Lantern Bearer // Lanterns' Lift
The Good: As a general rule it's probably best to always at least consider these low cost Disturb cards. A 1-mana 1/1 with Flying is on rate and drawing a card on death is value you don't often see on 1-drops. The card it provides is certain to be relevant too. While of course under rate, it is fairly cheap and the ability to give one of your threats evasion and some extra stats later down the line is a great thing to have access to.
The Bad: There's honestly not much negative to say about this card, it's just 1-drop creatures in blue aren't really a high priority and while it's not a bad card I don't see it getting picked very highly.
The Verdict: I think this card will play well if you decide to run it. The value is there and if you're in the market for a blue 1-drop this is one of the better ones. Personally I only want a single blue 1-drop in my cube and I'm not cutting Wingcrafter for this.
Scattered Thoughts
The Good: Wow pauper finally gets its Fact or Fiction and it's a lateral difference rather than a powered down version too. Seeing 4 cards deep, taking the best 2, and then fueling your graveyard is very powerful. This is bar none the best of the 4-mana draw spells at common.
The Bad: Nothing to say here.
The Verdict: Slam dunk, this card is gas. I don't currently run any noncreature 4-drops in blue but I will be finding something to cut for this.
Stitched Assistant
The Good: Phyrexian Ragers are good and while this one requires a little something extra, if you have sac fodder lying around the value here is crazy good. For the cost of edicting yourself you get an extra power and a scry before the draw.
The Bad: You will never want to have this card Exploit itself. If you don't have a board or simply don't have anything you want to sacrifice, this card is very underpowered.
The Verdict: While not every deck will want it, I think this is a powerful synergy piece for decks that run the Doomed Dissenters and the like. I'll have to test this one out, but for larger environments I think this is definitely good enough if you run the support.
Blood Fountain
The Good: Raise Dead is generally a very good effect in pauper cubes and 4 mana to get 2 of your threats back is the rate you usually pay for Death Denied, a card I've been very happy with. It is also technically the same rate as the recent Crawl from the Cellar which is also a great card.
The Bad: I'm worried that it doesn't do much on the front side of its text box. Rummaging is not very powerful and costing 2 total mana just isn't worth it for the effect.
The Verdict: I think this card plays. I would definitely play it as one of the bigger Raise Dead effects and I'm going to try it in my Pauper Twobert.
Persistent Specimen
The Good: Reassembling Skeleton has been the most important part of the aristocrats deck for peasant cubes, and pauper cubes have been waiting for its version.
The Bad: 3 mana is pretty expensive for this effect.
The Verdict: If you run an aristocrats package this is a shoe in and will likely be a high pick for the deck. The Pauper Twobert just doesn't have a need for this synergy piece.
Reckless Impulse
The Good: This card is great, red gets a Night's Whisper. 2 cards for 2 mana is all the value you want.
The Bad: Of course you're going to run into situations where this isn't strictly draw 2 because you either can't play one of the cards or don't want to. This is relatively small downside however.
The Verdict: I think this card will make it in most cubes, I certainly think it compares favorably to cards like Thrill of Possibility. I'll be testing this card in my own cube as well.
Voldaren Epicure
The Good: Thraben Inspector is such a great card for cube that anything resembling it should probably be looked at, especially since Thraben was so unassuming itself. Of course Blood is a lot worse than Clues but the extra little aggression the ETB provides makes me hopeful this will play well.
The Bad: As I've said before Blood is quite a bit lower power than something like a Clue. I'm unsure if such an effect is worth running a 1-mana 1/1 for.
The Verdict: I don't think my current 1-drop creatures in red are very good right now so I'm definitely going to test this and I'll keep my eye out for how this card plays in other cubes too.
Rural Recruit
The Good: A 3/1 is a pretty good body for a token that can be mass produced with blink effects and that's pretty much all I'm looking to do with this one.
The Bad: The base rate isn't quite there being just a 4/2 for 4. I feel like training is negligible the vast majority of the time.
The Verdict: Green just has a lot of great options for 4-drops, I wouldn't run this unless you're really trying to push a blink archetype.
Spore Crawler
The Good: On rate and replaces itself on death. This is just a classic pauper 2 for 1 and I'm sure it will play great.
The Bad: While essentially a smaller version of the powerhouse Silverback Shaman, I would have liked this much better if it had a relevant keyword like that card does.
The Verdict: I think this one is a shoe in for most pauper cubes. While not the highest pick, you'll never be unhappy drafting this and it will most always make the main deck.
And that's all I've got for the pauper cubers this set. Nothing too exciting but I'm quite happy with the options this set has brought. A lot of simple card advantage playables and that's always a good thing to fill out cube lists. Thanks for reading and Happy Thanksgiving!
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